‘Twisters’ review: ‘90s-style blockbuster sweeps in to save the day

Pop culture is as cyclical as, well, a big tornado. It was only a matter of time, then, before the second-biggest movie of 1996 (after Independence Day) received the reboot treatment. What’s surprising is that it’s taken Hollywood so long to get sucked back into the whirlwind of Twister, the ludicrously high-concept blockbuster that eschewed anything as dreary as character or sparkly dialogue in favour of chucking trees, trucks and even a cow into massive tornadoes that swept Oklahoma. Come to think of it, there might have been a kitchen sink in there too.

So the disaster movie is back, now directed by Lee Isaac Chung (Minari) and with Steven Spielberg’s Amblin Entertainment again on production duties. Appropriately enough, the only recurring character is the bad weather itself: this time around, as before, the action focuses on ‘storm chasers’ who ride bravely (or foolishly?) into the chaos to gather information on tornadoes. Here it’s Kate (Daisy Edgar-Jones), a weather nut whose addiction to ‘nados results in catastrophe depicted in a bravura opening scene, which sets the tone for a ‘90s-style popcorn bonanza that whirls non-stop with breath-taking stunts.

Five years after the Bad Thing, Kate has relocated from rural Oklahoma to New York, where she’s working for a weather station, which admittedly seems like an odd way to forget what went down. One day she’s paid a visit by her old friend Javi (Anthony Ramos), who is also haunted by that terrible day. He stayed put in the sticks to try and beat the tornadoes – and now he needs Kate’s help. When she reluctantly agrees to return, she finds they’re not the only ones riding in the storm: every idiot with a “$10 weather app”, as Ravi sniffily puts it, now pursues the twisters too.

And then there’s Tyler (Glen Powell), a dishy YouTube div who’s amassed a million subscribers by driving a big red truck into the ‘nados while blasting out fist-pumping country rock. All of this amounts to a movie so American it should come with a calorie count; it’s almost meta in that it’s a wildly entertaining blockbuster that’s also a celebration of the mere idea of a wildly entertaining blockbuster. With cinemas under strain and would-be movie behemoths bombing all over the shop, it’s as if Twisters has been made with the sole purpose of sweeping in to save the day. Every cent of that $200m budget is visible in a series of dizzying set-pieces that surely amount to the most entertaining film of the year.

Yet the flick is also cleverly scripted, with Kate’s motivation slowly teased out as we learn she might just have the means of knocking the ‘nados into a cocked hat. The devastation wreaked by the freaky weather is evocatively explored and in this there’s a timely ecological message. Packed with heart, smarts, jaw-dropping effects and an exquisite ensemble cast (shout out to Harry Hadden-Paton’s nerdy British journalist as comic relief), Twisters will have you singing the praises of the multiplex until the cows come home.